AngioDynamics reports success in targeting, destroying cell tissue

Queensbury-based medical instrument maker AngioDynamics this morning said the first clinical use of electrical fields to target and destroy cancerous cell tissue — while sparing ducts, blood vessels and nerves — was demonstrated in a clinical trial with five patients.

Biopsies two weeks after treatment showed it had succeeded in destroying the targeted prostate tissue.

The successes mean AngioDynamics likely will move ahead with its plan to acquire Oncobionic Inc., an Irvine, Calif.-based company, which holds the license to the irreversible electroporation technology developed by University of California at Berkeley bioengineering professor Boris Rubinsky that was used to destroy the tissue.

AngioDynamics in October 2006 had agreed to pay $25 million, less any long-term Oncobionic debt, once four consecutive cases of successful treatment in humans had been achieved.

Of that sum, $5 million was paid when the agreement was reached, and another $10 million will be paid when the acquisition closes, likely next month, according to AngioDynamics.

The remaining $10 million will be paid in two installment, six months and 18 months after the acquisition.